How Can We Pray for those We Didn't Vote For (and may not like that they are now in office)?

The 46th President of these United States
(and the 48th Vice President)

Several elections ago, after the end of a tumultuous presidential
election, I recall what my sister said to me after her candidate did not get elected president: "He ain't my President. I'm moving to Canada." (For the record, she never made good on her promise and as far as I know continued to pay her taxes to the federal government and obey the law.) And life went on for both of us.

In the aftermath of our most recent presidential election, while we haven't talked about it I'm pretty sure she's happy about the results. That being said, I am not and I just so happen to be friends with lots (and lots) of people who feel the same way as I do (but have no interest in moving to Canada). I guess she'd say the shoe's on the other foot this time.

On account of it being President's Day, I've invited the folks of the fellowship I pastor as well as many others that I know in the area to join me in praying for President Biden and Vice President Harris today. Yes, I didn't vote for the team that won nor do I believe the direction they want to steer the country is a good one. But all the same I know they need my prayers. And so I'm rolling up my sleeves and seeking to get with the program. For anyone who may be feeling the same way but struggling to reach for the "want to", here's a few reasons to pray for those we didn't vote for (and may not like that they are now in office):

• We are urged to do so:

1 Timothy 2:1-4, NIV:

“1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

1 Timothy 2:1-4, The Message:

2 1-3 "The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live."

4 "He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned..."

Paul says its in our own best interests to have leaders who govern well so we can get on with living our lives, loving our neighbors and looking for opportunities to share the love of God. These are reasons enough to pray for those in office, even if we didn't vote for them!

• We are to acknowledge that God has set them in place for this particular season:

Daniel 2:20-21, NIV

20 “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;

    wisdom and power are his.

21 He changes times and seasons;

    he deposes kings and raises up others.

He gives wisdom to the wise

    and knowledge to the discerning.” 

I'm pretty sure Nebuchadnezzar wasn't Daniel's choice for a boss let alone a ruler. I'm sure he resented the fact that he had been carted off to Babylon against his will and then groomed for government service. But the king's strange dream (Daniel 2:1) changed all that and as Daniel committed the matter to prayer God spoke to him about his greater purposes in world history - and Nebuchadnezzar's kingship became a touchpoint of praise:

So we are called to praise God for setting these elected officials in place!

• We know they need wisdom to govern wisely:

Psalm 2:10-11, NLT

“10 Now then, you kings, act wisely!

    Be warned, you rulers of the earth!

11 Serve the Lord with reverent fear,

    and rejoice with trembling.”

Okay, nowadays they wear a tie but the need
remains the same

Proverbs 11:14, NLT:

“Without wise leadership, a nation falls;

    there is safety in having many advisers.”

Let's admit the fact that it's very easy for all of us to sit back and criticize from the comfort of our living room. Things seem so very simple from our perspective, don't they? But the complexities all administrations face must be overwhelming. 

So we need to pray that God gives them wisdom from heaven (even if they think it's coming from another source!)

• Nations rise and fall because of God's sovereign work through history (see Daniel 2)

Job 12:13-25, NIV

“To God belong wisdom and power;

    counsel and understanding are his.

14 What he tears down cannot be rebuilt;

    those he imprisons cannot be released.

15 If he holds back the waters, there is drought;

    if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.

16 To him belong strength and insight;

    both deceived and deceiver are his.

17 He leads rulers away stripped

    and makes fools of judges.

18 He takes off the shackles put on by kings

    and ties a loincloth around their waist.

19 He leads priests away stripped

    and overthrows officials long established.

20 He silences the lips of trusted advisers

    and takes away the discernment of elders.

21 He pours contempt on nobles

    and disarms the mighty.

22 He reveals the deep things of darkness

    and brings utter darkness into the light.

23 He makes nations great, and destroys them;

    he enlarges nations, and disperses them.

24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason;

    he makes them wander in a trackless waste.

25 They grope in darkness with no light;

    he makes them stagger like drunkards.”

We who know our Bibles should know this: nothing lasts forever. Kingdoms rise and fall. Leaders come and go. The Reich that was supposed to last for a thousand years barely sees twelve (and that was way too long). 

So we need to pray that the President and the Vice President administrate with humility and as individuals who one day will have to give an account for the policies they enact.

These are reasons enough, I think we'd all agree, to pray for our leaders. Who knows but perhaps another Daniel 4 or Daniel 6 story is being written even as we speak? But even if it isn't, as citizens of a kingdom coming greater than any other that's ever been, we need to pray that in the interim God give grace and mercy to the chief executive (and his second) of the present kingdom we call home.

It's not good to be dumb (a Friday afternoon reflection on Romans 1)

Now there's a kind of dumbness that's not good

 Over the years of serving as the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School's cross country coach, I've had the joy of coaching a lot of great kids and Johnny (not his real name) was one of them. He was a kid with autism who on most days brought a lot of energy to practice as well as short, pithy sayings he would frequently repeat as if a mantra throughout the course of a work-out. I used to refer to them as “Johnnyisms”. A good one was: “Difficult things are hard.” So true! True enough that it ought to go on the back of a CC hoodie one day. But my all-time favorite forever remains “It's not good to be dumb.” Amen.

Recently while reading to Mrs. Lindberg's second graders from Shel Silverstein's collection of poems Where the Sidewalk Ends, Mrs. Lindberg asked me to read Smart as her students have been learning money values of late. It's a great little poem that epitomizes the reality of stupid that some people think great:

What Mrs. Blue is asking us

Speaking of stupid, is it just me or do we live in a culture these days
that is embracing dumbness at levels never before discovered? Remember when Mrs. Blue in the movie Forrest Gump asks Forrest, “Are you dumb, or just plain stupid?” And in reply he firmly asserts what his momma once taught him, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Here's an example of the kind of stupid I'm referring to: sexual identity is something fixed by biology. That is, it is a matter of a combination of x and/or y chromosomes. Except if you live in America where it's becoming more acceptable to assert that sexual identity is, on the contrary, rather fluid and can change from day to day. Just the notion of that idea, reminds me of another great movie quote. In Hoosiers, as Coach Dale (played by Gene Hackman), settles into Hickory he makes what a lot of the locals feel are stupid decisions regarding their high school basketball team. One of them finally wryly remarks,

“Look, mister, there's...two kinds of dumb, uh...a guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, uh, a guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don't matter, the second one you're kinda forced to deal with.”

In the same way, it's one thing for individuals to believe the sort of foolishness that a person can decide themselves whether or not they are a man or a woman. It's quite another when our government endorses and actively works to protect that notion as if it were a real thing (when in fact it isn't).

All of this and other things going on makes me think of Romans 1. Writing to First Century followers of Jesus as if they were Twenty-First Century sufferers of the rising “truth police” out on the 'net, Paul comments:

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Make way for the Stooges

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:18-23, NIV)

As I read it, if any person – man or woman, white or black, rich or poor – rejects God and his rule, however smart they may be they get morally and really dumber. Oh, they can find an increasing chorus of people who parrot what they think is true but it don't make it so. After all, stupid is as stupid does.

24-25 So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

26-27 Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. (The Message)

There's a reason that guard rails are placed on curves and bridges on American roads: laws of physics are real things and living in denial of those things can have seriously stupid repercussions – and perhaps deadly ones.

28-32 Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! (The Message)

Johnny was so right: It's not good to be dumb. But we seem intent of running our way there. What kind of culture will we be when God pulls out all the stops and just lets us run loose according to our own whims and fancies? Will we really be in a better place as some truly believe? Or are we caught up in the draw of a society slowly swirling down the toilet? Optimist as I am I want to shout, 'Never!' but stupid is as stupid does and sooner or later heaven will deal with the dumbness we seem to be chasing now and how smart do you think we'll feel then?

Going, going...gone